Recently the nation has been swept by the show "Dancing With the Stars" in which celebrities are paired with professional ballroom dancers to perform on national television in front of millions of viewers. Each pair gets one week to learn the complicated ballroom routines. And while Ballroom dance is used by many celebrities as a way to shed off unwanted pounds, there are many life lessons to be learned in this form of dance. Tatianna Keegan is a competitive ballroom dancer who sees the value in learning to ballroom dance, "What the stars are really learning is how to be responsible". Keegan says that both the teacher and the student must take responsibility to learn their own steps and practice them thoroughly. There is no dominance or submission but rather an equal harmonious partnership. This is a valuable lesson in life, learning not to depend on others but also not to control others.
The movie "Take the Lead" starring Antonio Banderas also sees Ballroom dancing as a means to teach life lessons. Banderas plays Pierre Dulaine, a ballroom dance teacher who volunteers to take over detention at an inner city New York high school. Instead of banging erasers, the troubled youth in detention are taught ballroom dancing. At first, they HATE it but in time they learn that "Life is a Dance" just as Dulaine says. The movie is based on a true story and teaching ballroom dancing to teenagers in New York public schools became a permanent program. In the movie Dulaine says ballroom dancing teaches young men to touch a girl with respect while it teaches young women to trust men and more importantly to trust herself.
Therefore when all of these elements are brought together, the practice of the moves with the valuable lessons each person learns...the result is magic on the dancefloor, like this scene from "Take the Lead"...
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